"Hidden somewhere in the forest lie the Lower: those who have not risen to fulfill their destinies like us. They scuttle amongst the rocks and trees like crabs... waiting for the toe of the giant to pinch."
-- Excerpt from the journal of a Ainran soldier

About this creation

Well, this was supposed to be my one and only 2014 MOCAthalon entry, for Team Broken Bricks, in the category Serf's Up!

However, I failed to read the rules, and yeah, I paid the price.

That being said, this is also my second entry into Mike Doyle's Beautiful Lego 2: Dark contest. I am more pleased with this build than any other I've ever made.

Since first seeing the works of David Hensel, Kyle Ransom, A P, Blake Baer, Brian Corredor, etc, it's been my goal to build a landscape that is as realistic as possible. Though some of my other builds have come sort of close, due to time constraints or piece limitations I could never quite achieve the level that I was looking for, and that I knew (or perhaps just hoped?) I was capable of.

But now I feel as if I finally have. I love the rocks, trees, and landscaping in this build--after Googling images of a boulderful, rocky forest, I finally saw what I'd been struggling to take out of my mind manifested on paper--and in buildable form, no less! From there the bricks flew into place.

And I got some divine intervention, too. A lot of things lined up to allow me to finish this in time--thank God.

The hero. He'll be returning in other builds--name of Alexander.

I don't have much time to talk right now, but I'll be returning to link the inspiring builders I mentioned and perhaps add some more commentary. For now, I'm just thrilled that after more than a year on MOCpages, I've finally built something that I am 100% happy with :D

Whoa, that $#!% is tight! Very well-realized and sort of naturalistically evocative. Based on the previous comment, perhaps you should change your handle to "Tree Boss." I bet no one else is called Tree Boss...

Quoting Kai Bernstein
Nice work! You already know my thoughts on the rocks, so I'll jump straight into...everything else. :P The pillars are awesome and look even better with the foliage pieces and whips, but exposed technic brick holes and diagonal texturing tiles tend to look a little messy (when inconsistent). I do love the cheese incorporations, though. The other thing is the landscaping; vast expanses with lone 1x2 layering dotting it just looks...funny to me. Better to make the raised patches out of many different plates in different positions to get larger patches and a more natural/diverse look. But the tree is great, as is that canopy, and as is the moc in general!

Nice work! You already know my thoughts on the rocks, so I'll jump straight into...everything else. :P The pillars are awesome and look even better with the foliage pieces and whips, but exposed technic brick holes and diagonal texturing tiles tend to look a little messy (when inconsistent). I do love the cheese incorporations, though. The other thing is the landscaping; vast expanses with lone 1x2 layering dotting it just looks...funny to me. Better to make the raised patches out of many different plates in different positions to get larger patches and a more natural/diverse look. But the tree is great, as is that canopy, and as is the moc in general!

This build just draws you in to look at all of the fascinating details! Very well done! There are a lot of things that I can point out that I like about the build, but I'll just mention how awesome those pillars are! Excellent!